Clausen ends Notre Dame's bowl struggles with a bang

Clausen threw for a career-high five touchdowns and posted his
first 400-yard passing performance as Notre Dame crushed Hawaii,
49-21, in the Hawaii Bowl.

Golden Tate had three touchdown catches and Armando Allen
returned a kickoff 96 yards for a score for the Fighting Irish
(7-6), who claimed their first postseason win in nearly 15
years, snapping an NCAA-record nine-game losing streak in bowl
games.

Notre Dame's previous bowl win was a 24-21 win over Texas A&M in
the Cotton Bowl on January 1, 1994.

"I think it will be a happy time for our players," Notre Dame
head coach Charlie Weis said. "It's been a long time since we've
won a bowl game. I am also very happy for Notre Dame because
this was a big step forward for us and leads us into 2009 with a
good taste in our mouths."

The Fighting Irish did it in a very big way on Wednesday,
setting school records for most points, passing touchdowns (5)
and passing yards (413) in a bowl game.

It was a huge effort for Notre Dame despite the fact that Weis
was calling plays from the coaches box for the first time due to
knee problems.

"It was ten times easier," Weis said about his seat for the
game. "It was like night and day. Jimmy (Clausen) and I were
talking about this earlier. I haven't been up in the box since
Drew Bledsoe got hurt in 2001."

Clausen provided the spark early, recording 300 of his 401 yards
and three touchdowns in the first half, lifting the Irish to a
28-7 lead.

With the big first half, Clausen surpassed the previous school
record of 286 passing yards set by Brady Quinn against Ohio
State in the 2006 Fiesta Bowl.

It was not a start expected out of Notre Dame, as it struggled
to another subpar season under Weis.

After a nightmarish 2007 season in which he coached the Irish to
a 3-9 record, the worst in the storied program's history, Weis
guided the team to wins in five of its first seven games before
a terrible finish that included an embarrassing loss to lowly
Syracuse in the home finale and a blowout defeat at Southern
California to end the season.

The poor finish drew calls for Weis to lose his job. However,
athletic director Jack Swarbrick announced that the maligned
Weis would return to coach in 2009 following the loss to USC.

With the black cloud of uncertainly lifted, Notre Dame played
relaxed and with confidence, giving some possible indications of
what next season may have in store.

While Clausen and the offense was rolling up numbers never seen
for the Irish in a previous bowl game, the Notre Dame defense
also came up big, recording eight sacks and almost completely
disrupting a Warriors team that entered the game averaging 31.8
points in their previous six games.

"I think that our players came here on a mission to mix business
with pleasure and I think they did a heck of a job," Weis said.
"They showed up today and was ready from the start of the game
till the end of the game."

Predicted to give Notre Dame a challenge, Hawaii instead had
another disastrous performance in a bowl. Coupled with their
41-10 thumping by Georgia in last year's Sugar Bowl, the
Warriors have been outscored 90-31 in their last two bowl
appearances.

"I really admire Notre Dame," Hawaii head coach Greg McMackin
said. "They were down, losing the last four of five games. I
thought tonight's game was going to come out different. But
they jumped on us. We didn't make some plays and they did.
They finished.

"We talked at halftime, and we thought that if we could score,
we could be back in the ball game. But they didn't let us back
in."

Greg Alexander finished with 261 yards passing, two touchdowns
and an interception for Hawaii (7-7).

While the Warriors struggled, Clausen was extremely close to
perfect, finishing 22-of-26.

"I've taught in the pros and today he (Clausen) was as accurate
as I've ever seen," McMackin said. "I give him full credit - he
was outstanding and his receivers were outstanding. They made
the plays and we couldn't make the plays."

The sophomore signal caller completed eight of his first nine
passes on the Irish's first two possessions, the second of which
ended with a 2-yard touchdown run by Robert Hughes.

After Hawaii was held to a three-and-out, defensive back Sergio
Brown blocked the ensuing punt. However, he was also flagged
for excessive celebrating, forcing Notre Dame to start its next
possession at its own 45-yard line instead of in Warrior
territory.

That may have slowed down the Irish on that possession, but
Clausen caught fire afterwards, finding David Grimes for a
14-yard scoring play and a 14-0 lead 4:35 into the second
quarter.

Although Hawaii responded with a six-play drive that lasted just
over two minutes and finished with a 10-yard TD pass to Aaron
Bain, Clausen answered right back, finding Tate for the first of
his three scores - a 69-yard bomb that also was a bowl record.

Tate, who also caught an 18-yard TD in the back left end of the
end zone with a second left before halftime for a 28-7 lead,
finished with six catches for 177 yards. His receiving yards
and touchdowns were also Notre Dame bowl records.

Clausen, who had only two touchdowns in his previous four games,
extended the lead to 35-7 when he found Allen on an 18-yard
screen on a 3rd-and-9 play for his fourth scoring pass.

Topping the previous high of 39 points put up against Florida in
the 1992 Sugar Bowl, the Irish could have had more but Tate's
lengthy punt return with 2:25 left in the third quarter was
called back after Notre Dame was flagged for roughing the
kicker.